In the quarter, 8,325 seats of CATIA were sold, up .6% year-over-year; and 13,536 seats of SolidWorks, up 14.6%.

Net income for the quarter was $61 million, an increase of 41% from the $43 million in the same quarter a year ago, but a decrease of 45% from the $111 million in the just previous quarter.

Bernard Charlès, Dassault Systèmes President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Dassault Systèmes had a solid start to 2008, meeting all of our financial objectives for revenue, operating margin and earnings per share. We are seeing good dynamics in our core industries and new verticals. In particular, we had a very strong quarter for CATIA benefiting from broad-based demand among automotive and aerospace companies and good execution in our Business Transformation Channel for large accounts.

This year will mark the final steps in the creation of our PLM indirect [sales] channel. In this regard, our first quarter was an important milestone as we moved ahead with the planned country transitions, including Germany and Japan. In less than fifteen months, a remarkably short period of time, we have developed an indirect PLM channel spanning more than 60 countries.”

On March 11, 2008 ESI Group announced its consolidated sales for its fourth quarter, and full year 2007/08 to 31 January 2008. In the quarter, sales were €28.3 million, a 4.8% increase from the €27 million in the year ago quarter, and almost 120% increase from the €12.9 million in the just prior quarter. License revenue was €23.8 million, or 84% of total revenue, a 3% rise year-over-year and almost 160% increase sequentially. Service and other revenue in the quarter was €4.5 million, an increase of over 15% year-over-year and an increase of 22% sequentially.

In US dollars, total revenue was $41.6 million, compared to the $35 million in the same quarter a year earlier, and a 135% rise sequentially from the $17.7 million in the prior quarter.

For the second year in a row, ESI Group recorded acceleration in its growth by volume (on a constant exchange rate basis). For the year sales totaled €68.9 million, up +8.5% by volume organically, versus growth of +7.6% the previous year and +6.3% in 2005/06. With ESI Group recording 81% of its activity outside France and billing 48% of its sales in euros, ESI said the negative evolution of exchange rates again significantly impacted the overall level of activity, which grew by +4.3% in euros.

The geographical split of sales was as follows: 47% in Europe, 37% in Asia and 16% in America. The surge is continuing in Asia, where major OEMs are increasingly present. This development in emerging countries such as China and India is being accompanied by an evolution of the business model towards OTC ('One Time Charge') sales, to the detriment of annual License rentals. As a consequence, repeat business for License sales (excluding exchange rate effects) represented 80% of total License sales at the end of January 2008, versus 86% the previous year. The America zone suffered from a difficult economic situation over the second half of FY2007, and there was an amplification of transfers towards Asia, which led to a slowdown in sales on this zone.

The seasonal nature of fourth-quarter activity was even more marked for License activity in 2007/08. Sales recorded over the fourth quarter thus represent 43% of annual License sales, due to customers' desire to concentrate the renewal of major annual contracts at the start of the calendar year.

Net income for the year was €2.33 million, versus €2.44 million for the prior year. In US dollars, this is about $3.0 million, versus $3.1 million.

Alain de Rouvray, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ESI Group, stated, "2007-08 was characterized by the continuing transition phase in the Licenses business, while the Services business saw a strong growth. In addition, operational margin remained stable relative to last year but grew up by 18% in volume. The Group's fundamentals remain solid. We have strengthened our financial position thanks to cash generation of €3.4 million and our strategy keeps being confirmed by the continuing roll-out of our solutions at major clients. Despite the prevailing uncertain economic conditions, we are confident about improving our performance over the current fiscal year. Indeed, we expect to see the positive effects of commercial investments carried out in 2007-08, as well as continuing strong growth in the Services bu­­siness. Net margin should also benefit from a more effective currency hedging. Therefore, operating margin is expected to reach 10% of 2008-09 total revenues".

On May 7, 2008 Moldflow Corporation announced financial results for the third quarter of its 2008 fiscal year. Total revenue for the quarter was $15.8 million, an increase of 7% from the $14.8 million in the same quarter a year earlier, but a decline of 7% from the $17 million in the prior quarter. Product revenue was $7.5 million, a drop of 8% year-over-yea, and a decline of nearly 16% sequentially. This accounted for 47% of total revenue. Services revenue was $8.4 million or 53% of total revenue, an increase of almost 26% year-over-year and an increase of just over 2% sequentially.

Net income for the quarter was $151 thousand, compared to a net loss of $7.8 million in the year ago quarter and compared to net income of $3.8 million in the just prior quarter. The year ago quarter had a loss from discontinued operations of $10.6 million.

As mentioned in the foregoing Recent News Highlights section of this issue of the MCAD Industry Commentary, Autodesk announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Moldflow.

Roland Thomas, Moldflow's President and CEO, commented, “We are pleased with our results for the first nine-months of fiscal 2008, which produced revenue growth rates of 13% and EBITDA growth rates of 25% which were in line with the guidance we had been giving for the full fiscal 2008 year. During the quarter, we continued to see strong sales results in our Asia Pacific region and continued traction in sales of our Moldflow Plastics Insight - Enterprise Edition product. In contrast to our last fiscal year, the third quarter of fiscal 2008 brought a return to our normal seasonal revenue patterns, whereby our third quarter revenues typically decline from that of our second fiscal quarter. This seasonal impact, combined with an unusually robust result in the same period of prior year, contributed to a challenging year-over-year comparison for our third quarter. Focusing on the nine-month result, however, removes some of this seasonal volatility and highlights the overall progress of the business when compared to last year.”

On May 7, 2008 MSC.Software Corporation announced results for the first quarter, the period ended March 31, 2008. Total revenue for the quarter was $61.2 million, a 6.2% increase compared to $57.6 million for the first quarter in 2007, but a nearly 14% drop from the $71.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Software revenue totaled $22.0 million, or 36% of total revenue. This was a 4.5% decline compared to $23.0 million for the first quarter in 2007, and a 23.8% decline from the just prior quarter. Maintenance revenue was far larger than software revenue, coming in at $33 million, an increase of 14.8% year-over-year, and an almost 1% drop sequentially. Services revenue was $6.2 million, an increase of just over 6% year-over-year, but a 31% drop sequentially. Foreign exchange favorably impacted total revenue by $5.2 million in the first quarter.

Enterprise simulation represented $6.1 million, or 28% of total software revenue in the quarter, up from 21% a year earlier. In the quarter there were 123 transactions over $100,000, compared to 126 in the year ago quarter. The average transaction size was $294,000 versus $288,000. There are 181 quota salespersons.

Revenue from the Americas accounted for 30% of total revenue, EMEA 39% and AP 31%.

Net loss for the quarter was $2.2 million, compared to a net loss of $6.2 million in the year ago quarter, and compared to a net gain of $2.3 million in the just prior quarter. Last year's operating loss included $7.1 million of restructuring charges.